If I hadn't done this and had simply indulged my lust all day long, just imagine how terrible the consequences could have been!  I could just see the headlines:  "Nine-year-old boy dies at water park because lifeguard was too busy checkin' out the beach babes."  OK, so I had a lot of added incentive to keep that garbage out of my mind, but the point is still made.  Reciting Scripture or Scriptural principles is a key way to combat lust.

2. Look at Women from the Chin Up

When I was in high school I noticed these guys who always walked around with their heads hung low, and they never looked anyone in the eye.  I always felt bad for these guys, because I thought that they were depressed or something.  But soon enough I found out:  they weren't depressed, they were just staring at all the girls' butts as they walked down the hallway!  OK, they might have also been depressed, but they were definitely on butt-watch patrol. 

In order to stop lusting after women as objects, we need to see them as human beings, and in order to see them as human beings we need to see them as such; we need to look them in the eye.  This is a rule that I've made for myself for quite a while:  Anything below the chin is off-limits!

This doesn't mean that we should not look at girls at all.  The issue is where and how we look at girls.  It is OK to admire and even be attracted to parts of a girl's face, which often give clues to her heart.  It's a wonderful thing to have an attractive girl smile at you, and to smile back at her, and there's nothing wrong with that.  In your heart you know the difference of looking at a girl as a person and a friend, and looking at a girl as an object.  Girls certainly know the difference as well.

Lust is more than sexual thoughts – it's longing for or coveting a girl who is not ours.  The problem is not always belittling the girl with our lust.  For some, lust is so closely tied to worship – we're longing for someone to worship and our eyes fix on something tangible, something that we can see and admire and say Hey, I can worship this.  We need to recognize that she's not the goddess we make her out to be, nor is she an object.  She is a person.

A friend of mine pointed something out to me the other day that really put this in perspective.  He explained that when he looks at other guys, he is trying to understand them; he is looking at their eyes to learn what is in their heart.  Seeing is a huge part of communication between guys.  We need to look at girls with the same dignity that we look at guys with.  Not with a selfish, covetous gaze that oozes shallowness and either makes her uncomfortable or causes her to stumble, but with a sincere, respectful look that builds her up as a human being and a child of God.  There's much more to it than just keeping our eyes off her body, but looking at women from the chin-up is a great start.